Page 26 of Bad Blood Wolf

Chapter 10

Brody stopped halfway out the door. Jasmin waited, crouched on the bed, naked and vulnerable.

This was crazy. She should just let him go. He was a wolf—a Nashville wolf—and whatever either one of them had felt in the back of that truck, this couldn’t ever be anything.

But she still couldn’t let him walk out, looking so lost and hopeless. It made her chest hurt inside.

“You can stay for a while. If you want.”

He turned around, gazing at her with those gorgeous blue-green eyes. They showed everything he was feeling. Pain and defeat. Fear, loneliness, anger. And a tiny bit of hope.

He looked afraid to hope. She didn’t want him to be afraid.

“Don’t go.” It was a whisper this time.

He closed the door and leaned against it. The dim light played off his chiseled cheekbones, and the muscles in his legs flexed inside his jeans. She could still feel the touch of those long-fingered hands on her skin. It made her shiver.

His face was tight and closed. He didn’t know his eyes were giving him away.

“Why did you run?” he demanded. “We had something. You must have felt it. It was like—” He broke off, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets and clenching them into fists. “Shit,” he muttered, staring at the floor.

“It was like something exploded inside me. You woke up feelings I haven’t had in—hell, you woke up things I’ve never felt. It has to mean something.”

She didn’t answer—she couldn’t. Too many feelings were swirling around inside her, blocking her throat, choking off her voice. He sighed, and something inside him seemed to crumble.

He looked up at her, his voice desolate. “I just want one thing in my fucked-up life to mean something.”

Brody hurts. Make it stop. Her jag was getting frantic again, like she had when he almost walked out.

Without thinking, Jasmin got up off the futon and crossed the room, pressing herself against him, resting her head on his chest and encircling him with her arms.

“I don’t know what it means,” she said. “I don’t. But maybe we can find out.”

She felt him take a long, hitching breath, and then let it out, some of the tension and stress going with it. He wrapped his arms around her, one hand cupping the back of her head, his cheek resting on her hair.

They stood that way for a long time, holding each other.

Jasmin didn’t know what to do next. She was so used to being hard and tough, and now her armor was broken in pieces and she was like a sea creature, all soft and vulnerable without its shell.

She didn’t know what to do with that feeling.

“I’m not what you’re looking for,” she said finally.

Brody loosened his arms and pulled back just enough so he could look down into her face.

“How do you know?” he said. “I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”

“You said it in the truck,” she said. “You want someone soft. I’m not soft.” It was important that he understand that. “I don’t do soft, and I don’t do gentle.”

And I don’t do love. Those things made you vulnerable. Weak. She couldn’t afford to be weak.

He went quiet for a minute, obviously thinking. His fingers moved through her hair, stroking it gently. It was almost like the feeling she had when he stroked her fur. It was… nice.

Finally he said, “You were gentle when you fixed up my ear.”

She snorted. “I called you a crybaby.”

He grinned. “Yeah. It was hot.”